The present invention relates to a device for treatment of water, and in particular a device for the preparation of water by decontamination or sterilisation.
In the context of a simple user-friendly and portable device to improve drinking water quality, so far mainly devices have been available which are based on a filter effect (e.g. by active charcoal filter) or those which by chemical means allow drinking water to be obtained from water-containing fluids contaminated by bacteria, heavy metals etc.
However in practical use purely filter-based solutions for water quantities to be treated which contain bacteria and other micro-organisms have often proved inadequate, and other known processes intended to kill micro-organisms in water e.g. by the application of ultra-violet radiation, have proved unsuitable for use in a portable device not least due to the energy supply required.
Furthermore generic technologies are known from the state of the art which by means of electric signals (typically direct voltages) achieve decontamination or cleaning effects on polluted water. Here the efficacy typically depends on so-called anodic oxidants—typically chlorine—being released from contaminated water by electrolytic effect and in fact it is this chlorine which has the desired bactericidal effect. Usually such known devices therefore have large-surface electrodes in order to achieve the electrolytic effect in the optimum manner.
However such a procedure also has the disadvantage that the released chlorine itself in turn has a negative effect on the water quality in particular in the case of drinking water, and in addition the odour and taste of water treated in this way is typically found to be unpleasant.
The task of the present invention is therefore to create a device for the treatment in particular preparation, decontamination and sterilisation of water which can be operated and applied with low expense, can be constructed to be portable and in addition is universally applicable in relation to its energy supply and allows secure, reproducible and rapidly achievable sterilisation effects but with minimum generation of anodic oxidants.